The Secret Life of Dustbunnies
by Foxglove Nightshade
Summary: Two girls go to the spirit world, and wreak havoc upon the life of the bathhouse attendants, with misadventures such as: Bringing Chihiro back, encouraging the dustbunnies to mutiny, and cliff diving off the roof into the ocean.
1. Chapter 1: Spirited Away, Again

A/N: I know this is a dumb little piece of fluff, but PLEASE read it anyway! I spent three days on it. And it is my first fanfict, so PLEASEPLEASEPLEASE no flaming if any of y'all actually read it, which I hope y'all will! Please?

Disclaimer: I do not own the bathhouse, any of the spirits, (except for Tantou) Yubaba, Kamaji, Lin, Haku (or Kohaku for all you purists out there. Haku is easier to type), Chihiro, the dustbunnies (but I wish I did), or any of Miyazaki's other characters or places. Or things. The title (or most of it) belongs to Sue Monk Kidd, author of _The Secret Life of Bees_. I do, however, own Koiso, Ikuyo, Fumi, and the aforementioned Tantou.

Chapter 1: Spirited Away

The car rattled down the bumpy road. Inside it, sat the two girls of this story, completely unaware of the adventure that was jus

"Will you _please_ stop leaning over my shoulder?" Ikuyo glared at her sister, who was watching her write. "It makes me nervous."

Koiso slouched back in her seat, wrinkling her nose at her sister. "If watching you write makes you so nervous you-"

"Koiso, Ikuyo, _leave it._" Their mother snapped in the same voice she used on her dogs and coworkers when they were misbehaving.

Ikuyo felt her face heat up, and looked out the window; Koiso did the same, but without the blushing.

"Wait! Stop, Mum!" Ikuyo sat straight up in her seat.

"What is it?" her mother stopped the car, and looked at her.

"No, no, back up some!" Koiso craned her neck to look back.

Backing up slowly, their mum pulled up in front of the old red building.

"This is _incredible_…" Koiso breathed. "I'm going to go in." she announced, climbing out of the car. "Does anyone else want to?"

Both her sister and her mother gazed at her blankly. Cricket, cricket.

"Come _on_!" the girl glanced back at the mouth of the entrance. "The wind's blowing me in." she observed, and took a few steps back.

Finally she just glared. "Fine then. I don't need any of you!" she ran to the entrance, and disappeared inside.

"I love it when she gets so comically miserable like that." the girl's mother shook her head.

"Yeah, but I should probably go and make sure she doesn't get into any trouble." Ikuyo stepped out of the car. It'll probably only take a couple minutes; it's probably only some abandoned amusement park."

**Jeez, is it black in here.** Koiso thought. **No wonder this place isn't used anymore.**

She emerged into an open building, dusty, with windows screening the light, making it golden. **This is incredible!**

Catching a glimpse of the world outside, she walked out. "This is even better than incredible! I never knew _that_ was there!" she said aloud. (Actually, she only said this out loud because I got sick of bolding and un-bolding)

"What?"

Koiso spun around. "Hah! I knew you couldn't resist coming along!"

"I could, I just didn't want you to get lost, with those navigational skills of yours." Ikuyo started walking down into the valley.

"Wait! Where are you going?" Koiso ran after her.

"I want to see this." her sister kept walking.

"But…but…but like you said, Mum might get nervous! The sun's going down!"

"Koiso, you were the one who wanted to come here in the first place."

"Yeah…" Koiso followed. "So _why_ do I have a bad feeling about this?"

The abandoned village's twists and turns brought Ikuyo to a single building that was not abandoned. A bathhouse. She looked at it for a minute, until her sister collided with her.

"Do you hear that?" Koiso looked distracted. "I could have sworn I heard a train."

She continued forward, onto the bridge, her head tilted down to hear the noise, until she heard another one. Running footsteps.

Her head jerked back up. A boy was running towards them.

"Go back!" he hissed at them. "You have to cross the river before dark!"

"It's pretty late for that now, isn't it?" Koiso pointed at the bathhouse. "Look, they're even lighting the lamps."

"Why does this never work?" he implored of the sky. "Listen. Eat…these." he pulled a few berries off a bush growing next to the bridge. Then run down to the train tracks, then to the boiler room. You'll see a man there; he's Kamaji, the boiler master. You have to ask him for work. He'll do anything in his power to resist you, but you have to keep pestering him until he gives in."

"And why should we do this?" Koiso was not so easily taken in.

"Because."

"And why should we trust you?"

"Fine. If you don't trust me just go." the boy turned and started walking back to the bathhouse.

"Fine. Be that way." Koiso turned and started running through the village.

Ikuyo flushed. "Sorry about her."

The boy turned around. "Don't worry. It's just denial."

"I suppose you get a lot of that around here."

"No, actually. The last human to come here was six years ago."

"Human? Aren't you…" Ikuyo's words trailed off.

"No, of course not." he smiled crookedly. "I'm a spirit."

"This is bad. This is very bad." Koiso paced along the river. **So maybe that weird kid wasn't lying. This is…annoying.** She had never been this wrong before.She looked at the berries that she still held in her hand. **Well, if he was right about the river…** She popped them in her mouth, and stared across the water at the bright lights on the other side. **Mom is probably _freaking_ out about this. Blech.**

She turned and started running back through the abandoned carnival town again. It wasn't deserted. A train of spirits made their way through the town. There was one that looked like a huge, seven-foot tall radish, another was a small cat. Koiso took her chance and ran across to where she heard the train.

Climbing down the stair to the tracks, her foot slipped and she crashed down the steps into a stack of barrels. The resulting crash made many of the windows open above her, and workers peer out. Koiso stayed still under her mound of barrels, careful not to let anyone see her. When the people had closed their windows again, she crawled out from underneath, and closed the distance to the boiler-room. Pushing open the door, she stepped inside.

The first thing she noticed were the living soot-balls, lugging chunks of coal as large as their bodies. The second thing…

"Aaaaah!" Koiso leapt back, causing the object of her fright to look up at her.

"Another one?"

"Aaaaaaah!"

"What's the matter, can't you talk?"

Gulp. Koiso's back pressed against the door of the boiler room. Some of the dustbunnies stopped what they were doing and stared at her.

"I suppose you'll be wanting work just like Chihiro did. Hmn." he sighed through his nose. "Sorry, there is none. My dustbunnies do all the work I need done, and are very efficient. But still…"

Koiso squeaked. "But you have to give me work."

"What's that? Speak up, I can't hear you."

"I need work. I need to work here."

"Oh, very well."

Another door opened, and a woman entered.

"Lin?" Kamaji turned to look at her. Koiso slumped down a little farther against the door.

"Yes Kamaji?" she reached into a basket and withdrew a handful of candy stars. Tossing them to the dustbunnies, she caught sight of Koiso's shoes. Her gaze slowly traveled up…

"NO! No, Kamaji, but I am not getting involved with another of these humans."

"I'm not asking you to."

"You _never_ ask, Kamaji, it just always turns out that way!" Lin spun around and marched out the door. In a few seconds, she returned. "Well, girl? Take off your shoes and come with me."

Kamaji smiled at Koiso, who stood uncertainly next to where the dustbunnies worked. "The dustbunnies will take care of your shoes. Don't worry."

Koiso slipped off her shoes, and followed Lin. Also following Lin was a comment made by Kamaji just as the door closed.

"Got out of the wrong side of the bed, didn't you, Lin?"

She sighed, and smiled, both at once, and went over to the elevator, Koiso following like a lonely dog.

The doors of the elevator creaked open. Inside was a glowing study, filled with light and warmth. Koiso stepped out, looking around.

"Yubaba?" she called, looking around.

Suddenly a woman in a long black cape swept into the room. "Yes, who…oh. Another one."

"I beg your pardon." Koiso stood up straighter.

"Another human. The last one just left a few minutes ago. Iku, I believe her name is…"

"You mean Ikuyo?" Koiso swallowed hard.

"No. I didn't say what her name _was_, just what her name _is._ I suppose you want to work here or something like that?"

"No, I just came to enjoy the view." Koiso said sarcastically.

"Apparently." Yubaba glared at her. Shoving a piece of paper at her, she urged: "Put your X mark right here."

Koiso looked at it. It already bore the name of her sister. Signing it, she handed the paper back to Yubaba.

She examined it. "X?"

"You said to put my X mark there." Koiso shrugged.

"No, put your John Hancock, your siggy…"

Koiso sighed. "Ah. I see what you mean." taking the paper once again, she spent about five minutes working on it before Yubaba snatched it back.

"How long _is_ your name any-" she gasped when she saw what was written on the paper. It was a very life-like caricature of one of America's most famous founding fathers. (Guess who's on the Sam Adams bottle! I'll give you a hint: not Sam Adams.)

"Your name, girl."

"Well, you couldn't' have been more direct about it, could you?" Koiso signed the paper.

Yubaba inspected it. "Wonderful. And you are…Koi."

A single character blew off the paper and into Koiso's face. She nodded.

"Good girl. You may help Lin. Now get to work."

"I _told_ Kamaji I didn't want to bring you to Yubaba. She always makes _me_ show all the new people the ropes. What's your name again? Koi?" Lin looked around the bottom of the bath she was cleaning.

Koi nodded.

"I don't suppose you know why Yubaba named you after goldfish?" without waiting for an answer, Lin continued. "I suppose you've met Haku?"

"Who's that?"

"Oh, he's a dragon spirit. I suppose you've heard of Chihiro?"

"No. Just in passing."

Lin scrubbed harder. "She was the last human to come here, six years ago because her parents were turned into pigs. Yubaba called her Sen, and we worked together." she said proudly. "Anyway, she did several things here, like freeing a river spirit from pollution, and got rid of a pesky No-Face. She and Haku loved each other…" she sighed. "And then Chihiro went home. Haku got extremely depressed, and decided he would age like a human being from then on. I asked him what he's going to do when he's three hundred, but…" without pausing to take a breath, she continued, "Could you go and get an herbal bath token?"

Koi jumped up and trotted out of the room, nearly running over a cat spirit.

"Well do you mind?" the cat sat firmly on her foot. "Apologize immediately. It's not nice to run spirits over, Koi."

"I'm…I'm sorry…Er, what's your name?"

"Tantou." the cat sighed, and got off her foot. "I suppose I'll have to deal with clumsy spirits now that I'm here.

"I beg your pardon!" Koi snapped.

"Good. I pardon you." Tantou lazily walked away.

Lin straightened up, a smudge of algae on her nose. "That is the last time I ever wash a tub that an algae spirit used."

"Here, Iku. Wash these too."

Iku, formerly Ikuyo, grimaced, and took a huge silver platter and bowl. She rolled up her sleeves as best she could, and scrubbed the silver until it shone.

"Having some trouble there, Iku?" Fumi, the dish dryer, asked sympathetically, her eyes twinkling.

"What do you think?" she asked furiously, shoving the platter at her.

"Oh, poor baby. You missed a spot." Fumi looked at the gleaming mirror of the platter, and preened.

"Where!" Iku's head snapped up.

"There." Fumi splashed Iku's face with soapsuds.

"Oooh…yoooou…" Iku turned bright red, then laughed and splashed Fumi back.

"You have to admit, you walked right into that." Fumi splashed her again, and soon they had carpeted themselves and the floor around them with the bubbles.

Haku stared out his window, at the stars flecked across the glowing sky. Those humans had brought back memories of Chihiro, and now he couldn't live without seeing her again. He was going to find some way to bring her back to the spirit world…the only question was how.

A/N: Not really a cliffie, but next chapter there with be one about the identity of an oblong round object. It's not what you think! Anyway, hope this was a nice bit of fluff for all you people who like this sort of thing.

Thanx for reading (ok, now review!)

Foxglove

A/N: Yup, chapter 2 is up now. I need more Japanese names…what would one call a water spirit?

Disclaimer: I do not own any of Miyazaki's great characters, he is far smarter than I am, and I am glad he actually lets me use them in my little fanfict.

Chapter 2: Chihiro


	2. Chapter 2: Into A Gold Sunrise

A/N: Sorry about that little blip at the end of Chapter 1. I still need the water spirits name, though, and multiple dustbunny names.

And the reason all the paragraphs seem to flow into each other with the time changes was edited by FanFiction, not me.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of Miyazaki's characters. Or _Finding Nemo._ Or _Titanic_.

I HAVE no reviews, so I can't RESPOND to any. (This means you people!)

Of course, maybe I'm being a bit unfair, since Chapter 1 has only been up for about 24 hours.

Chapter 2: Into A Gold Sunrise

That night, Koi lay awake. **Is this just some wonderful dream, or is this all real? **If it was a dream, there was no harm done. If it wasn't…**Mom will be searching all over for us. I wonder what will happen to all the adults who come searching. Will the bathhouse become filled with the entire local police force? Where is Mom now? What is she thinking about-**

A flying ball of soot landed squarely on her mouth, causing her to sit up, and cough loudly. Glancing down at it, she realized it was a dustbunny. "What are you doing here?" she asked it, taking as reasonable a tone as can be used by an insomniac with a faceful of soot.

"What is it, Koi?" Iku rolled over and raised an eyebrow at her sister.

She immediately threw her blanket over the dustbunny, and said, "Nothing! Nothing, really."

"You know, Koi, whenever you take that tone of voice I know that your…"

Iku's voice trailed off as she fell asleep again.

Now it was Koi's turn to raise an eyebrow. She flicked her blanket off the dustbunny. It squeaked at her and held up a sooty candy star.

"For me?" she asked.

It squeaked again and made a nodding motion. Koi took the star and smiled at it. "Thank you. Is there any other reason that you wanted to come here?"

It squeaked, yet again.

"I'm sorry, but I don't understand what you're trying to say. You have a very limited vocabulary. Either that, or I just don't understand squeak."

Apparently giving up, it spun around, and beckoned into one of the shadows in her room. Two more dustbunnies scampered over to join the first one, carrying between them a message.

Koi took it, and opened it.

Dear Koi, it read.

Hello. I am that spirit that you so politely insulted on the bridge yesterday. I have a question for you. You may have heard from Lin about Chihiro. If I know her, she isn't able to keep her mouth shut about anything. If not, ask her. My question is: would you be willing to go out into the human world for a day, and bring Chihiro back to here? You will have to give her this; it will make her remember what occurred in this world, which she has forgotten. It has been six long years, she may have forgotten just by natural causes anyway. Please meet me.

Kohaku River

Koi looked up, but the dustbunnies had fled, leaving her with the note she held.

She looked down at the thing that had fallen out of the note, a little paper card. "Chihiro." she whispered. "Chihiro." also in her palm was a little yellow candy star, slightly smudged with soot and melted a little from the heat of her hand.

"If you were given a choice of whether or not you wanted to go home ever again, would you?" Fumi glanced up from the dish she was drying.

Iku pushed a piece of hair behind her ear with a soapy hand, and continued washing, keeping her eyes averted from Fumi's. "I-I would." she admitted to the sponge.

"Really? You would leave here just to go back to the real world, where nothing ever happens? You would actually leave?"

"My mum is missing me right now." Iku shoved a cup at Fumi.

She fielded it. "Actually, no. When you ate the food from the spirit world, you ceased to be in the human world. Currently, your mother is living like you never existed. if you return home, you will be sent back in time to the instant where you crossed the river, and you will lose all your memories of this place. They'll still be there, of course, but they'll be hidden, something lingering in the back of your mind, almost forgotten, but almost remembered."

"What do you know about it?" Iku spun around. "You're a spirit, aren't you?"

"No. I'm a human. But I've lived here for so long I like to think that I am."

"How long have you been here?"

"Oh, a hundred years, give or take a few months." Fumi took the dripping dish out of Iku's hands and dried it briskly. "I've seen many people come and go, but none ever stayed. I suppose everyone had a busy life to get back to, and couldn't live like this." she shrugged, and replaced the dishcloth on it's hanger, and went to get another pile of dirty dishes."

"Why are you here?" Koi scrubbed her bath vigorously, but kept her eyes on the cat sitting on the rim serenely. "Surely you can't have come here for the baths."

"No, you're quite right." Tantou nodded vigorously. "Baths…Brrrr. No, I'm here to see what comes out of Haku there bringing Chihiro back to the spirit world."

"You know?"

"Of course I know! All cats are fortune tellers, and if I'm the cat spirit, I should be the best of them all." Tantou purred benignly, and squinted at Koi.

"I would think the cats would choose someone more…well, imposing."

The diminutive cat stood up at her full 9 inch height. "I am very imposing!"

"Sure, if the radish spirit could actually see you, he'd be very scared."

"I take offense at that!" Tantou's gray-and-amber fur stood straight out. "If I was big enough, I'd use my awesome telepathic powers to knock you over, you miserable ten-year-old!"

"I'm thirteen."

"You _are_! I would have sworn you were ten."

Another dustbunny came into the room and tracked soot across the floor of the baths and the mirror-bright surface of the bath itself.

"Ah! Back you beast!" Koi attempted to defend herself from its onslaught of soot, but to no avail. Soon the front of her uniform had soot spots on it.

"You really had to do that, didn't you?" she asked it. It hung it's head for a second, then handed her a scrap of paper. On it, nearly illegible in the soot, was written two words. **Rose Garden**. (Is there even a rose garden in the movie? I highly doubt it, but I guess I'll have to just put it in.)

The dustbunny bounced out cheerfully, avoiding Tantou's pounce easily.

Koi quickly scrubbed off the soot marks and dumped out the scrubbing water.

"I hope you know that this is an unauthorized break you're having." Tantou slid down into the center of the bath.

"I do. But what are they going to do if they catch me? Fire me?" Koi smirked at the little kitten, who glared back.

"Well, I'm coming with you." Tantou marched out the door. Koi let her lead her to the rose garden.

"I've been waiting." Haku said simply.

Koi turned a bright red. "Well, if you wanted me to come faster, you wouldn't have sent a dustbunny to get me."

"You're still covered in soot." he said critically.

"I know." Koi narrowed her eyes.

Haku raised his hands defensively. "I didn't do anything."

"So why did you want to meet her? This is an unauthorized break time, I hope you know." Haku looked down at Tantou, who stood in front of Koi.

"Tantou!" Koi hissed down at the cat. "You said you wouldn't say _anything!_"

"If you have ever known cats, you will notice they never keep their moths shut." Haku looked pointedly at Tantou.

"You're very observant." Tantou said warmly. She looked up at Koi. "See, this-"

Koi picked up the little cat and covered her mouth. "So _why_ did you ask to meet me here?"

"Oh, you got my message last night?"

"Of course. This _morning_ would be a better term, as I got it about 4 a.m."

"Sorry about that. But I have a plan…"

The next day, Iku was put on bath-washing duty. However, instead of simply having to scrub out one of the ordinary baths, she was ordered to scrub out the largest one in the entire bathhouse.

"I don't get it." she groaned to Fumi, who had also been relegated to the unsavory work duty, "Am I being punished for something? Did I do something wrong in a previous life?"

"Apparently." Fumi tied up her sleeves to her elbows. "I am _never _going to get over this. I _hate_ being covered in sludge."

"I wonder why." Iku scrubbed for another second, then sat with a muffled squelch in the sludge. "I can't take this anymore! Really!" she thwacked her head against the side of the bath and received a large green splotch on her forehead.

"Having issues there?" Fumi sat down sympathetically in the slime. "I know, it must be hard."

"It's not _that_, it's that I just can't scrub anymore! I've been up to my elbows in soapsuds for the past two days, and _now_ I have to scrub out a slimy green _tub_ that some sort of spirit used."

"Hey Mr. Grumpy-gills-"

"No, not now, Koi." Iku hit her forehead against the sludge on the side of the bath again.

"When life gets you down, ya know what you do?" Koi grinned at her sister.

"What?" Fumi, apparently very confused, asked her.

"_Nooooo…_" Iku groaned, muffled by the slime.

"Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, what do we do we swim, swim…" Koi did a little dance on the edge of the bath, and slipped inside. "Need some help? 'Cause I'm free."

"Why would you want to help with _this?_" Iku motioned around her at the huge, slimy bath.

"So I can annoy you, why else?" Koi plucked a scrubbing brush out of her sister's hand. "Phew! This bath must have been used by the _king_ of all algae spirits."

"Actually it was a stink spirit."

Iku raised her head. "A _stink_ spirit?" she tried to wipe off some of the sludge on her hands.

"Yeah. They don't come here all that often." Fumi rubbed the side of the bath. "Usually they're something underneath all that gross stuff, but this one was a stink spirit through and through."

Koi's eyes widened. "So how did you get it clean?"

"We didn't. We gave it some perfume, scrubbed at it a little, rinsed it off a little, and asked it to come back later. Sometime in the next century preferably."

"I hate this." Iku and Fumi stumbled up the stairs, led by a sprightly Koi.

"Don't be mad! Look at all the stars outside…There aren't _nearly_ that many in the city…And the _ocean_…"

"It is incredible, isn't it?" Fumi smiled fondly at the light of the train, shining under the water.

"Where does it come from?" Koi looked at it. "Where do the spirits live?"

"I don't know. Someday, I want to get on that train, and _go_ somewhere…to the horizon, into a gold sunrise."

Both of the humans sighed, and rested their chins in their hands.

"Hey, you know where the view would be really good?" Koi said suddenly. "Up on the roof."

Iku looked up…and up…and… "No way, Koi. Absolutely not."

"Why not, Iku? It's only a few stories above us."

"Over my dead body will you go on the roof."

"Come _on_. There's the ocean!" Koi looked over the rim of the railing on the balcony. "People _pay_ to go cliff diving, even if this is really just a building.

"I know, I know…"

"Plus, Mum had us take those rock-climbing lessons. You don't want them all to go to waste, do you?"

"But-" Iku tried to protest but was cut off by Koi standing on the railing. She grabbed at the window above her, and pulled herself up on the window ledge.

"I can't watch!" Iku covered her eyes.

When Koi finally managed to pull herself up onto the roof, she leaned over the edge and waved at her sister and Fumi. "Come on up! It's not that hard, and the view is great!"

"I hope you know you just took ten years off of my life." Iku looked at her hair as if she expected it to be white.

"Yup, but look at the stars!" Koi lay on her back and stared up at them.

"LOOK AT THE STARS!_LOOK AT THE STARS!_"

"Relax, Iku, or you'll blow a head gasket." Koi waved one hand limply at her sister.

Iku sat with a bump on the roof.

"She's scared of heights." Koi told Fumi, who was pulling herself up on top of the roof. Suddenly she gasped. A wicked smile lit up her face. "There's something I've always wanted to do…and I think now is probably one of the only times that I'll ever be able to."

"Oh, jeez." Iku muttered.

Koi stood up, flung her arms out and yelled, at the top of her lungs, "_I'm the king of the worllllllllllllllllllllld!_"

As she yelled 'world' her foot slipped. She slid down off the edge of the roof, with Iku flinging herself at her ankles, and Fumi latching on to Iku's arm. All three girls teetered on the edge for a moment, then fell of the edge.

Yubaba, who was poking up her fire in her study, heard a distant 'aaaaaaah!' She opened up her window, looked out…and nearly got her nose clipped off by a trio of banshees hurtling through the air. She had just enough time to recognize Koi when they flew past her.

_Splash!_ All three hit the water, being driven down, down, down, by the force of their landing. Koi saw the bottom rushing up to meet her, reached out, and just missed it as she started floating back up again.

Fumi broke the surface first, coughing and treading water. Iku followed, pulling Koi up by the neck of her shirt.

"That was _fun_!" Koi exclaimed, as soon as her mouth broke the water.

"That was _not_ fun!" Iku answered her, and started swimming back in towards land.

Yubaba paced the hallway of the building, her arms crossed, her black shoes tapping a staccato rhythm on the lacquered floor. "Where is she? Where is that…Koi?"

Haku came hurrying up to her. "Is there anything you want, Yubaba?"

"Yes, I want to know where that girl Koi is!" Yubaba glared at him as if it was his fault she couldn't find her.

Behind her back, Haku say the very girl in question, dressed in her human clothes, walking down the hall.

"She's not with Lin?" Haku asked distractedly. Koi had a long stick…she was rolling something…

A/N: Not much of a cliffie again. But hey, what more do you expect from something like this? People don't like fluff. Hmmm. Must-write-something-serious-

I will not post Chapter 3 until I get at least one review. One review! Isn't that few enough people?

Foxglove


	3. Chapter 3:Chihiro

A/N: Yes! I finally got my **_1_** review that I was waiting for! My existence is now vindicated.

Nekkyo-Chan: I LOVE YOU! I really do! Thank you sooo much for reviewing! And for the compliments. Thank you thank you thank you!

Disclaimer: I do not own anything that belongs to Miyazaki, or the lines 'I am Sam, Sam I am', which belong to Dr. Seuss. The only things I own are Koi, Iku, Fumi, and Tantou.

Chapter 3: Chihiro

Haku ran out of the bathhouse after Koi.

"Why are you bringing _that _with you?" he pointed at the object she was rolling.

Koi crossed her arms defensively. "I happen to like watermelon."

"I-I-I…"

"If you want some, I'll save you a slice." Koi offered generously.

"You-"

"You don't want some, huh? It's a pretty big watermelon." the girl eyed the fruit with an appraising eye. "I'll save you a slice anyway."

"You…are going to drive me insane." Haku glared at her.

"You too?" Koi tilted her head to one side and raised her eyebrows, appraising him exactly as she had done the watermelon. She took the stick she had been leaning on, and continued to roll the watermelon across the bridge. "Anyway, I only have an hour, so I'd best get moving."

"Excuse me-but are you Chihiro?"

Chihiro looked down at the kid standing on her front step.

"Yes, but why do you ask? I don't know you, do I?"

"No, but do you recognize these names? Here, I'll read them off to you." the girl had a few pieces of paper, and she looked at one. "Kamaji. Lin. Yubaba. No-Face. You don't remember them, do you."

"No…I've heard the names before…sometime…a long time ago…"

"Not that long ago, six years."

"I moved here six years ago! They can't be people from my old school, can they?"

"No, they're from after you moved. What about Bou? Zeniba? A radish spirit? Totoro? Dustbunnies? Haku?"

"Haku." Chihiro whispered. "Haku…"

She sat down on the step with a thump. Half-forgotten memories rushed through her head. A wilting bouquet, a red building. A strange mossy statue, smiling as if it knew something she didn't. A bathhouse. Her parents eating like pigs. Pigs. A hot furnace. Little balls of soot. A heavy block of coal. A river. Going…transparent? She looked up at the girl. "Who are you?" she asked.

"That is not the question you should be asking. You should ask, who are _you?_ Sen." she said the last word faintly, almost impossible to be heard, but to Chihiro it brought a flood of new memories. An elevator. A huge spirit, pressing her against the wall, smelling of…radish. A warmly lit study. Three heads. An old woman, at her desk, blowing smoke through her nose… "Yubaba!" she cried out. "That old woman is Yubaba!"

"Old? With a big nose? Wearing way too much eyeshade? Yep." the girl nodded.

A boy in a blue uniform. A woman with long brown hair. A pile of sludge…and a pure river spirit. A dragon, dripping blood. A playroom filled with toys. A GIGANTIC baby. A spirit, in a mask, trying to eat her…the same spirit sitting beside her on the train of spirits. A tear coursed down Chihiro's cheek. Another witch, but a good one this time. "Zeniba." she whispered. Falling…and the boy in the blue uniform. The dragon. But not the dragon…

"Haku. Kohaku River." Chihiro stood up. "I don't know who you are. I don't know why you're here. I don't know where you come from," she said unsteadily. "But I know I never want to see you again. I don't know what's happening to me…"

The girl's eyes grew wide. "I can't tell you, but I can tell you you _aren't _going insane. That's what I thought, at first, but then…" she shook her head. "You have to come back to the spirit world with me."

Chihiro stood up, and shook her head. "I-I can't. I don't want to…go insane."

"You don't? Pity. I'll just have to tell Haku that you don't want to come back. You remember him, don't you?" the girl smiled sweetly at Chihiro, and continued without waiting for an answer that Chihiro wasn't going to give anyway. "He decided the he was going to age like a normal human being when you left, so if her could ever get away from Yubaba, he could come and find you, and be your same age. You know what? If I had someone who loved me like that, I would never leave them."

Chihiro took a shaky breath. "All right." she said more to herself than to the girl on her doorstep. "All right. I'll go with you."

Iku tapped her foot. Then she tapped her other foot. Then she crossed her arms. Fumi was standing at the front of the line for herbal bath tokens, and was arguing furiously with the attendant handing them out. Finally, the attendant caved, and handed her a different one. Fumi thanked him, and marched out of the line to Iku.

"Did you see that?" she demanded. "I swear, that person was trying to cheat me."

"Well it took you long enough." Iku looked at the token. "You got a good one though."

"See, when you fight you can get anything you want."

"Or you can just annoy the people long enough that they'll give you what you wanted."

Fumi shrugged. "That too."

"Anyway, have you seen Koi recently?"

"No. She'd agree with me though." Fumi hooked the token onto the string and let it go.

"She annoys people by just standing there. She would."

Chihiro looked around. Six years, and she hadn't returned to this place. Six years.

The girl looked at her awkwardly. "It helps if you go _through_ the entrance."

"I-I know. Who are you anyway? I mean, what's your name?"

"They call me Koi." the girl shrugged. "And as for what I am, I am Sam. That didn't really work out, did it?"

"What didn't?"

"I am Sam, Sam I am." Koi shrugged. "Dr. Seuss was a genius, so what do you expect?"

Chihiro looked at her guide sideways. "Are you a human, or a spirit?"

"A human. I don't really think Dr. Seuss has made that much of an impact on the spirit world. Plus, only us humans can actually come to this world and go back to the spirit world, if we keep something to remind ourselves of it." Koi shrugged. "It's both a blessing and a curse. We humans get to wander around a lot more, but we also get saddled with the errands everybody needs run."

Chihiro blinked at her.

"I'm not weird! Why does _everyone _look at me like that?"

"Not _only_ do you disregard the rules of this bathhouse, you _also_ leave _and_ bring a certain human…I am not going to even say the name…_back_ to the spirit world. Yes, I have _every right to kick you out but I won't out of the goodness of my heart!_" Yubaba was literally spitting flames, and her pet heads were hiding under a chair.

"You're just saying you won't give me a pink slip because you're too cheap to give me severance pay." Koi glared at the pacing witch, who stalked around the room, clenching and unclenching her hands.

"Oh…you…just…" Yubaba was at a loss for words. "Get out of my study. _Get out!_"

Koi sighed and stood up. "Here. We weren't able to finish it all." she took a cloth-wrapped package out of her pocket, and placed it on the witch's desk. Yubaba marched over to it, and opened the top, gingerly, as if it might contain a bomb or something similarly unpleasant. Instead, the red tip of a piece of watermelon poked out. She spun around and glared daggers at Koi's back. At the elevator, the girl stopped and turned around

"Have you ever heard the saying 'You laugh because I'm different, I laugh because you're all the same?'" she asked. "Well, my take on it is 'You laugh because I'm different, I laugh because you have watermelon stuck in your teeth.'"

A/N: Shorter chapter this time (only 1,335 words!), but next chapter will be up in a couple of days. I'm sorry, but I'm braindead because of the heat right now.


	4. Chapter 4: An Angry Polar Bear

A/N: This is going to be a longer chapter than Chapter 3. I only stopped that one so short is because it's so hot here I have writers block.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of Miyazaki's characters or the song "Karma" by Alicia Keys.

Chapter 4: An Angry Polar Bear with Rabies Would Be Nicer Than Her!

"So you got out safely from the old witch?" Iku had been placed back on the dishwashing squad, with her sister as a drier.

"Yep." Koi shrugged. "All she wanted to do was make me feel grateful. I gave her a piece of watermelon instead."

"Sis, if you live to be 21, I will personally pay you a hundred dollars." Iku scrubbed at the porcelain cup she was holding.

"Yeah, but when I'm 21 I won't _need_ $100. But you can pay me now!"

"What would you do with it?" Iku motioned around her at the kitchen. "Buy something? There's nothing to buy!"

"Good point. I would get on the train and ride it until I could spend it somewhere." Koi waved her dishrag in the air, then applied it to a cup Iku passed her. "There has to be somewhere that has a gift shop…Chihiro! What are you doing here?"

"That's a nice, warm welcome. I was just wandering around. This place hasn't changed at all. The spirits are the same, the people are the same, even the radish spirit is still here. I was just thinking…I'm going to see Zeniba and No-Face, and I was wondering if you'd like to come with me, Koi, you and…" her voice trailed off politely.

"Ah, yes. Chihiro, this is Iku, Iku, Chihiro. Good, the intros are done. Glad to get that off my chest."

Both of the older girls regarded Koi with mild amusement.

"Yes, well, either of you wants to go see Zeniba?"

"Of course." Koi nodded vigorously. "Who's Zeniba?"

"She's Yubaba's identical twin…but nicer."

"_That's_ given! An angry polar bear with rabies would be nicer than _her_." Koi snapped, and cracked her dishcloth in the air.

Iku laughed, and immediately muffled it, so it came out sounding somewhat like a strangled snort. "She doesn't like Yubaba."

"I wouldn't have noticed." (I know this isn't a very Chihiro-like comment, but I had to put it in. What would you say in this case?)

The train squeaked to a halt. Chihiro climbed out, and stopped to look around. Koi nearly squished her by scrambling over her. Completing this group was Iku, Fumi, Haku, and a very irritable Tantou.

"But you don't get it!" she was grumbling. "A No-Face is a very powerful spirit! It eats people! And _cats_! And this witch is-"

"Tantou, I'm sure if anything comes up, you'll be able to handle it. Right?" Iku picked up the little grumbling animal and held her close. Tantou had told horror stories about incidents with No-Faces the entire train ride, spoiling it for all the people except Fumi, who had stared out the window with rapt attention the entire duration of their ride. When the train had stopped, she hadn't wanted to get off, sitting in her seat until Koi dragged her down off the train.

"Chihiro?" an old woman who looked exactly like Yubaba opened the door to the small cottage and peered out.

"Zeniba!" Chihiro cried out and ran to hug her.

"Chihiro, you've grown so much!" Zeniba smiled at her. "How old are you now?"

"Sixteen." Chihiro smiled again, this time somewhat bittersweetly.

"Six years, has it really been that long?" Zeniba asked, then flicked her gaze towards the rest of the huddled group.

"Oh, Zeniba, these are Koi, Iku, and Fumi. Haku you know."

"Well it's certainly lovely to meet you all. Care to come in for tea?" Zeniba's gaze took in all the people standing in her courtyard. Koi shrank under her gaze; it felt like being scrubbed with steel wool.

"A_-hem_!" Tantou, still held by Iku, cleared her small feline throat.

"And this is Tantou." Chihiro motioned to the little animal. "She's a cat spirit."

"Is there any reason why nobody's talking?" Koi whispered across the table, and everyone sat and sipped their cups of tea.

"Not for me." Zeniba sipped her tea. "I'm just wondering why you are carrying one of Kamaji's servants with you."

"I am?" Koi's eyebrows shot up.

"Yes. You can come out now, little one." Zeniba tapped on the table imperiously.

A dustbunny hopped out of Koi's sleeve. It looked around at all the people assembled, and climbed up on the handle of it's carrier's teacup.

"What are you doing here?" she asked it. In reply, it made a tiny shrugging motion, waving its top two legs in the air like an oversized spider.

"You just came along for the ride?" Iku asked it, holding tight to Tantou's tail, lest the cat spirit lunge at the dustbunny.

It nodded, and dipped a leg into Koi's tea.

"And the tea?" Koi winced at the little specks of soot now floating in her cup. "Do you want some tea?"

It nodded again, and looked into the cup of tea on the table again. Holding up it's top two legs exactly as if it was holding it's nose, it jumped in backwards.

At the little _plunk_ it made, Koi flicked her eyes to the sky. Turning them back to the sooty tea, now with a dustbunny floating happily in the cup, she asked Zeniba, "Can I have some more tea?"

No-Face stood up and poured more tea for Koi. Carrying it over to the table he removed the cup with the dustbunny in it to the center of the table.

"Thanks, No-Face." Koi took a sip of her new tea.

"Chihiro, how long are you staying in the spirit world?" Zeniba suddenly put her cup down. Her voice was gentle, but her eyes were not.

"I'm-I-" Chihiro looked at Haku, who just glanced at her sadly. "I…Only a few more days."

The room fell silent again, except for the splashes of the dustbunny in the tea.

Iku suddenly put her teacup down into her saucer so hard it cracked. She hooked her arms through Fumi and Koi's and dragging them out of the room.

"What are we doing out here, Iku?" Koi asked, as she dragged the two of them along the courtyard.

"I don't know if you're thinking what I'm thinking, but this is one of those opportunities that shouldn't be missed. What we need to do, is find some way to help Haku able to stay with Chihiro for a long long time. For…"

"For forever?" Fumi sighed. "Oh, I just _love_ romances."

"Anyway, it goes like this, Haku did something nice for me and Koi-"

"Koi and _me_." Koi put into the conversation.

"Or maybe just me, but I think we should do something nice for him, you know. What goes around comes around."

"What goes up must fall down, now who's cryin', desirin', to come back to… Yeah." Koi completed the chorus with a little dancing.

"Right…" Fumi raised her eyebrows at Koi, who finished her dance and turned on her heel to face her sister again.

"You know what would be cool? If we found some way that Haku would be free of Yubaba, and he could go to the human world and live happily ever after!"

"Yeah! And you know how we could do it? We could get the dustbunnies to revolt, storm the old git's office, and find his contract! Take the antipathic hag down a notch or two, too."

"Are you serious?" Iku stared at her sister with disbelief.

"I mean 'too' as in 'also' not 'tu' as in a little pink thing a ballerina wears." Koi nodded happily. "Yup."

"Are you a liar?" Iku posed this question next.

"Nope." Koi shook her head, again.

"Are you insane?" Fumi asked a question of her own, her eyebrows lost somewhere in her bangs.

"Uh-huh. No, wait! I mean no!"

"So it all comes out now." Iku sighed, and sat on the flagstones of the atrium. "And _how_ are you going to get all these dustbunnies to mutiny?"

"That's the easy part. They're intelligent beings. All you have to do is ask them nicely and give them some food, or tea, afterwards."

"Is that so." the way Iku expressed it was more of a comment than a question.

"They're cool little things, once you get to know them. What's that shadow over there?"

Iku and Fumi both spun around and stared into the face of the No-Face. Or the mask, rather.

"Aaaaah. Aaaaaah." it held out something in its hands, which were dripping with an unidentifiable liquid. It opened its hands, and Koi screamed.

Yubaba sat in her study and fumed. "I don't get it! How could something like this happen? _Why_ do these things happen?"

The heads bouncing around her made faint noises of agreement.

"First I simply take a human into my bathhouse…my _well run bathhouse_, I might add, and then it starts wreaking havoc on it. really this is just _too much_! I knew that Koiso girl would be trouble, but there's absolutely no reason at all why she should be so disagreeable!"

A baby's cry erupted in the relative silence of the study, sounding like a fire siren on a still afternoon that goes off right behind you when you're sitting outside in the grass and thinking how good life is, and makes you think the world is ending and your house is on fire.

"I'm coming Bou!" she cried, jumping up hurriedly and running into the next room. Flinging open the door to the next room, she looked around. The wailing was coming from a corner piled high with things.

"Bou!" she wailed, shoving aside pillows and boxes and broken toys, and uncovering a baby in proportion to the wailing. "Bou! Speak to me! Is anything broken? Can you hear me? Are…you…choking?" she asked in proper pre-Heimlich fashion.

"Bou held up a single sootball, a dustbunny squished in his fist.

"Ah!" Yubaba sounded as if she was dying, but in reality was just gasping at the sight of a broad streak of black soot across the characters across the front of his red suit.

She pulled the gasping dustbunny out of her colossal son's grasp and busily gave it CPR. After she put the little creature down, she pulled a silk unicorn out of the pile of toys and wiped the soot off of Bou with the tail. "I really _must _ask Kamaji to get his…little helpers under control."

"Zeniba, six years ago I came here, and I've forgotten nearly everything. My parents are worried about me. I don't know what I'm doing her. Is it a dream? A nightmare? Am I dead?" Chihiro fiddled with her teacup.

"No, you are not dead. You are not dreaming. You are here, in the spirit world. In the human world, it is as if you never existed." Zeniba took a sip of her tea.

"In other words, while I'm here, nobody knows I exist?"

"Yes, Chihiro." Zeniba put her cup down. The No-Face left the house, going outside to the courtyard.

"But then…I could stay here for as long as I want! I could stay here for years, if I wanted to!"

"No, Chihiro." Haku said sadly. He had not had any tea; it was stone cold in his glass. "The door swings both ways. You would just become more and more of a spirit. You would forget your name, and the real world. Soon the world you had lived in before would just seem like a dream, like how the spirit world was to you before you returned. That girl you invited, Fumi, is one of those who stayed, not one of those who left. If you ask her what her real name is, she won't remember it. All she would say is, 'this is my real name.' When you were Sen, could you remember yours?"

A/N: Due to an unfortunate case of writers block, I am going to leave this story alone for…a week maybe? So I'm going to post again as soon as I've finished with next chapter. Stay tuned for…Chapter 5: The Great Dustbunny Revolution! Dun dun dun! (Fade into appropriate theme music.)


	5. Chapter 5:have special powers

A/N: I have just had a great idea! It came to me while I was walking and listening to 'Mockingbird'! (By Eminem, so I don't incite any name rights lawsuits.)

Disclaimer: I do not own anything that isn't mine, either with Harry Potter or with Spirited Away. I only own Koi, Iku, Fumi, Tantou, and Arata and Akio. (New characters! yay!)

The No-Face looked taken aback by Koi's screech, and held out its hand again. On its palm, the dripping wet dustbunny also looked quizzically at her.

"Phew!" she sighed, wiping her forehead dramatically. "You really had me worried for a second there, No-Face."

"Aaaaaaah." it handed her the dustbunny, and retreated back into the shadows.

"Thanks though!" Koi called out, and motioned for Fumi and Iku to gather around. "This is going to be good, I can tell."

Yubaba paced the room, then turned to the boys in front of her. "So I ask for some capable magic users, and all I get is _you_?"

"Hey, listen, lady," one of the twins said, sounding bored, "I have had more training than you, I'm more capable at magic than you, and since _you're _the one calling for outside assistance, we're probably smarter than you too. _So don't go dissing our age!_"

The other one was examining her heads with interest, his head bobbing up and down as the heads bounced around him, completely oblivious to their conversation.

"Now lady, our specialties are as follows. Mine are fireprotectionburningcontrollingtimemanipulationandmindcontrollingspells and earthhealingmanipulationnaturaldisasterstelekinesissuperstrengthanimalspeechandtransformation. Arata's are airflightclairvoyan cesuperspeedmanipulationtelepathyandteleportation and waterbreathingunderwaternaturaldisastersandmanipulation."

"What?" Yubaba hadn't taken any of his rapidly spoken commentary.

"Nothing." Arata sat up straighter. "So, I don't know if Akio's asked you this yet, but what are we supposed to do?"

"I don't know if this is bothering you, but this is creeping me out." Fumi stared around her at the many dustbunnies. They carpeted the floor, making it black as far as the lantern light could shine.

"Not me. I'm just wondering who's going to clean all this up tomorrow. I'd better not." Iku sighed.

"Don't worry, you won't be cleaning." Fumi lay on her bed, feet up to avoid stepping on any dustbunnies. "I will though." she wrinkled her nose.

"How do you get to look at the advanced schedules?" Iku played with a little dustbunny that had hopped up next to her.

"I don't." Fumi was about to say more, when Koi entered the room.

"Well, it's all good folks, everything's working out." she whispered. "I was able to procure a map of the area. The dustbunnies will have to climb up the evevator shaft, squeeze into Yubaba's study, and sneak around her in the shadows in the corners of her room. Once you get to the desk, I'll need one of you to open every drawer, and another one to search through the files until you find a piece of paper, with markings like this-" she drew the name _Kohaku River _in the soot on her bed. "And then you have to take it, roll it up, and do the whole thing again in reverse. Do I have any volunteers?"

The room was silent for a minute as the dustbunnies digested her information, then the room became a bedlam of waving arms and carefully muffled squeaks.

"I can see this isn't going to work. It's amazing that the other workers are able to sleep through this." Iku told her sister sarcastically.

"Shut up." Koi hissed. "Unless you have a better idea?"

Iku turned her back on her sister. "I need the biggest one of you, the smallest one of you, and the most athletic of you."

This caused quite a stir among the dustbunnies. They squeaked and waved their arms and legs, searching for certain ones in the center of the crowd.

A tiny dustbunny was tossed up onto Iku's bed by the masses. Floundering around in the blankets, it finally topped a ridge and stood like Sir Edmund Hillary for a second, looking down at those assembled below it. It then turned around and stared up at Iku, then was nearly flattened as a dustbunny nearly three times the size of it was flung up onto the bed, followed by one that gracefully vaulted over the large one. This one was the one that had followed them to Zeniba's, and carried messages for Haku.

"Are you reallythe most athletic?" Iku asked it. It nodded and did a few cartwheels, followed by a front and back flip and a handstand. When it was done with its little routine, it stood proudly and looked to see what Iku had thought.

"Well, I guess I'll just have to eat my words then. Listen. I'll call you-" she tapped the top of the little one's head, "Mitsu. And you…" she touched the huge one, "Kuma. And you, you little athletic one, will be Saku." She looked at all the assembled dustbunnies staring at her with the rapt attention of students just before a huge test trying to learn what they had missed by sleeping throught the other classes in five minutes. "Class dismissed."

All the dustbunnies flowed out of the window, with the exception of Mitsu, Kuma and Saku, who trotted out the door, Saku bouncing ahead of the other two, and Mitsu lagging behind due to its size.

The next morning, Koi and Fumi were assigned cleaning up their rooms, just as Fumi had predicted. Iku was put to work with dishwashing again. She scrubbed her dishes lazily, as the drier was ignoring her, and she was ignoring the drier.

An object thudded onto her foot, making her glance down quickly. Saku waved up at her, and immediately broke into an unmistakable tap dance. She smiled down at it, the handed her dish to the drier. "I have to go." she told him. He nodded distractedly, wiping off the dish.

Iku pulled off her apron, and threw it at the sink. She ran out of the room, stopping in the hallway.

Kuma and Mitsu held the ends of a scroll. Iku stared at it, then asked breathlessy, "Is this it?"

Both of them nodded, and rolled the scroll out flat on the ground. Iku knelt down to read it. It was a page torn out of a book, old and faded, with it's printing almost impossible to read. She squinted towards it, and read:

_have special powers."_

_This is so especially in some cases where humans receive prolonged access to spirits. The term for these people is Spirit-Chosen. They have been proven to have such powers as clairvoyance, controlling time, transportation, breathing underwater, telekinesis, the ability to fly, extreme strength or speed, transformation, mind control, incredible healing powers, or controlling an element._

_The longer one of the Spirit-Chosen remains with the spirits, the more likely that person is to have these powers, but usually only a week ought to bring out these tendencies in people. More than one power may be awoken, in fact, in cases where a human had spent over three hundred years with the spirits; he had all of the above powers and could control all the elements. _

_There is a special group for these people, used for training them to use their powers. Usually it simply trains them to control them, but it may sometimes make them into well-trained sorcerers, with power on par to that of those spirit mages. It is found_

"Agh!" Iku turned over the paper, but the writing on the other side was too faded to read. "This is _incredible_! I wonder if Fumi knows. She's been living here long enough, certainly! But-" Iku sat down hard on the ground. "You didn't find the contract? Oh dear." she tapped her chin. "If you could try again, and make sure to see this name." she drew it on the floor with the soap bubbles left on her hands.

The dustbunnies nodded and ran off again.

Iku reread the paper, wondering if she was missing something. "The Spirit-Chosen." she whispered, and nearly had a heart attack when her sister's voice rang out behind her.

"Yo Sis!" Koi said. "What do you have there?"

"Read this." Iku handed Koi the paper; she skimmed through it, then glanced up at Iku. "Spirit-Chosen? Sounds a little to much like Harry Potter to me. 'The Boy Who Lived', 'the Chosen One', you know?"

"This is very different, Koi." Iku stood up.

"What's Harry Potter?" Fumi joined their group, still holding a mop.

"Probably the most popular book series since paper was invented." Koi held out the paper. "Thismost likelyapplies to you."

"What is-" Fumi started to ask a question, when she was interrupted by a voice from behind her.

"What are you doing?"

The three girls spun around and stared at the two boys standing right behind them in the corridor.

"It's getting crowded in here." Koi observed.

One of the twins smiled. "Of course. I am Arata. This is my brother Akio."

"Arata, blue and white. Akio, red and brown. All right then. Is there anything that you might need?" Koi was all business, hiding the piece of paper she held in her hand.

"I'm not sure. Do you know where I might be able to find a pot I might be able to use?" Akio was the one who spoke this time.

"Of course, follow me." Koi spun and handed the mop she had leaned on the wall to Fumi. "Can you take care of this?"

"Of course." Fumi smiled at her, and turned and went into the kitchen, followed by Iku.

"I don't get this." Fumi rinsed the mop heads off in the sink. "Why would Yubaba want to bring in two sorcerers, when she is very powerful herself?"

"Maybe they specialize in something." **Like training other human sorcerers. They certainly looked human to me. **Iku added silently. **Maybe they're here to take someone away to that training group. Someone who has lived here among the spirits a long time. Someone like- **"Fumi!" she cried out.

"What?" Fumi hanging up the mops, called over her shoulder.

"Did you read that paper?"

"No." Fumi sat on an overturned bucket and flattened the paper in question out of its little crumpled ball.

"How'd you get that?" Iku sat on a bucket next to her.

"Koi passed it to me with the mop." Fumi squinted at the paper.

"I hope you know this is an unauthorized break time for you two." Both girls jumped and looked up at Koi, who was holding Tantou.

"You say that to everybody, don't you?" Koi asked the cat, who nodded.

"I don't see why we're doing a shrinking potion. I mean, how is that going to help anything?" Arata, sitting on one of the counters, ran his fingers through his messy black hair.

"Are you the potion expert here?" Akio waved a stirrer at his twin and glared at him.

"No…but what are you going to do with it?"

"I don't know yet…but it's going to work!"

"Akio, that's like saying you've written the next Mozart Requiem, but you don't know what those little black things on the page are. I know what to do, though." Arata jumped down and walked over to his brother.

"And you had to ask me first."

"How else am I going to have you act dumb?"

Akio glared at his brother, who was leaning against the counter.

"My plan is this. We slip the potion into whatever she drinks, and then, when she gets smaller, we take her…what?"

Akio held up his hand. "I hear something."

Arata fell silent and glanced around him, drawing on his telepathic magic. He felt a consciousness, but it was as if it was being shielded by something; he couldn't figure out where exactly it was. He felt it moving…moving out of the room.

Spinning back to the potion, he stirred it briskly. "It's gone, whoever it was."

Akio looked around and joined his brother at the cauldron. "But how come you didn't catch the person?" he whispered.

"There is no need to whisper, Akio. The person left."

"I do not see how you can eat that stuff." Koi stared at Fumi fascinatedly as she nibbled off the tail of a burnt lizard.

"It's good!" Fumi protested. She took a sip of her tea to clear her mouth and glared at Iku, who was shielding her face from the sight of Fumi's unusual food choice.

"I'm sure it is, Fumi." Iku leaned beck in her chair. "But if I were you, I wouldn't drink any more tea. Those two new sorcerers who came here are plotting something, and they spiked your tea with shrinking potion."

Fumi choked and put her tea down decidedly quickly. Koi sighed and rested her chin on her hands. "So they're evil? Pity. I thought they were cute."

"Koi, you would think anyone's cute after being locked in a bathhouse with guys who look like toads for a few weeks." Iku raised an eyebrow and sipped some of her own tea. "They were though."

"Too bad they were trying to poison Fumi here." Koi sighed again. "Don't worry Fumi, we won't let anything happen to you. Unless you want them to happen."

"Hey, you know, with friends like you, who needs anything more?" Fumi ran her fingers through her hair. "Unless you mean one of those cute guys…"

"No! They're mine!" Koi crossed her arms.

A/N: Hah! No cliffie! Anyway, I need suggestions? Should I put in a romance? Some fighting? Should someone DIE? (I'm just really bored right now, so I need to make my writing more exciting.) PLEASE REVIEW! PLEASE! I'm begging you on my knees here people! PLEASE!


	6. Chapter 6: Shrinkelled

A/N: I have upgraded the rating to T for 'romance' and 'humor'. Yes, I have decided to put in a romance. Or three. Or four. Or five. Okay, getting a little out of hand here. I've decided on the end of this story, and if I do not gat any more reviews, I will just quit! I will just end it and be like "goodbye, y'all are cruel people.' (Except for Nekkyo-chan.)

Disclaimer: I do not own anything that ain't mine.

Chapter 6: Shrinkelled

The next morning, Iku found herself staring into the eyes of a _gigantic_ dustbunny. It towered over her, and looked at her inquisitively out of its beady eyes.

"Eeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!" She shrieked. "Heeeeeeeeeelp!"

"Iku, where are you?" Fumi's voice rang out, sounding as if it was on a loudspeaker.

"Get it off me! Offffffff!" Iku had apparently come to her wit's end.

A huge hand picked the dustbunny up gently. "Whoa, Iku. Got a little vertically challenged there." Koi put the dustbunny aside, and picked up her sister, who was about the size of the average action figure.

"Iku! Are you okay?" Fumi's worried face appeared next to Koi's; both were as large as billboards.

"_Okay_!Do I _look_ okay! _No_! _I am shrinking and I might just disappear before your very eyes_!" Iku wailed, sitting down in Koi's palm with a thump. "This is it. This is the end. _And do you care_! _Noooooo_!"

"She's fine." Koi tipped Iku onto her bed, and lay on her stomach on the floor. "Iku, I don't think you'll shrink away into nothing. You only had half your cup of tea, so you won't just become an infinitesimal speck, or, at least, I don't think so."

"What should we _do_?" Fumi was anxiously pacing the room; it was deserted. All the other workers had already gone down to breakfast.

"Just take her to breakfast, give her some food, and then find the sorcerers. They ought to know what to do."

"Of course they will! It's they're fault I'm like this anyhow!"

"Hm. Good point." Koi handed her sister to Fumi. "You take her. I have to deliver this to Haku."

"Oh, they got it?" Iku tried to read the characters on the paper Koi held up. "Ko… Haku…Riv...Er…Kohaku River. Cool. Those dustbunnies really knew what they were doing."

"Did you see that look?" Fumi glared at the person pouring tea. "You would have thought I killed somebody instead of just taking two cups of tea."

Iku sat on the table, holding a piece of pork the size of her head, and a bit of bread off a pork bun. "Good thing you didn't show him me. He'd have a heart attack. So how _am _I supposed to get some tea?"

"I don't know. Maybe an eyedropper would work…_Iku._" she whispered quickly. "_Turn around slowly._"

Iku spun around, and stared at the two sorcerers. Who were staring at Fumi. Fumi quickly stood up and picked up Iku, who dropped her pork into her tea accidentally.

"Excuse me, but I have to talk to you." she snapped. "Alone."

"Which one?" Akio raised his eyebrows. In reply, she walked out of the room quickly, making Iku feel _very_ seasick.

"How do you explain _this_?" Koi hissed at them, holding Iku out in her palm.

"Oh no…" Akio stared at Iku for a second, then turned to his twin. "You _said_ this would work!"

"Maybe I shouldn't have left you to put it into action. You…imbecile!" Arata glared at his brother, who glared back at him.

"I don't suppose you have any antidote?" Fumi asked.

"Weeeeel…"

"Um…"

"You don't, do you?" Iku snapped.

"It takes a lot longer to make the antidote…"

"And we _weren't _exactly planning to have someone stay shrunk for that long…"

"So I'm supposed to _stay_ shrinkelled?" Iku's face turned bright red, resembling a tiny cherry tomato.

"Well…"

"Well…" Both twins appeared at a loss, and Arata glanced up at Fumi, who was watching the proceedings with interest.

"Well…yes!" Akio sighed and gazed at Iku, willing her not to blow up.

"We have to either write to the leader of our order or brew one fresh, which is going to take a long time." Arata explained.

"What do you mean?" Fumi asked. "Won't it only take you a day, like the potion did in the first place?"

"No. It takes a long time." Akio told her.

"What do you _mean?_ I can't be stuck in this shape forever, can I?" Iku's eyes widened, and she stared up at Akio as if he might be able to help in some way..

"No. Just for another month or so." Arata smiled grimly.

"_Another month_? Why don't you just coat me in brass and put me on a trophy?" Iku waved her hands around, not caring if she looked weird or not.

"Because who would make us laugh?" Fumi smiled sideways at her friend.

"That is a very good question." Iku did a little dance, and pulled on her friends finger. "Back to the food!"

"Very well, your highness." Fumi nodded at the twins. "If you'll excuse me?" without waiting for an answer, she spun very pointedly, and walked back to the noise of where the rest of the bathhouse attendants were eating. Most people were filing out, to go to their respective jobs.

"Darn. I didn't get my tea, did I?" Iku crossed her arms and tried to look prim, which was hard as she was only about four inches tall. In a few seconds, her posh demeanor dissolved, and she started to giggle uncontrollably. "Did you _see_ that, though? That Arata one _definitely _likes you."

"No, he doesn't." Fumi glared at Iku, and tried to ignore the blush creeping up her cheeks.

"Aw, how cute." Iku sighed romantically.

"He doesn't!" Fumi refused to meet Iku's eyes; she stared at the table fixedly.

"You like him _too_! Isn't that _cute_!"

Koi looked around. The room was completely deserted. "Haku?" she called.

It was no use. The room was deserted.

**Argh! **she thought. **I forgot he was a dragon. Of _course_ he's gone to Zeniba's to see Chihiro. If I wasn't so annoyed, I'd think that was sweet.** she sighed. **Where should I leave this?**

Three dustbunnies came running out of the shadows.

"Can I help you?" she asked them.

They looked at her strangely. One, which Koi recognized as Mitsu, the smallest, trotted forward. She held a scrap of paper. On it were a few hastily scribbled characters, saying**: I have gone to Zeniba's to be with Chihiro. I believe that Yubaba is going to kill me for this, as she still controls my name, but I do not care, I have to see her face again before I die. I love her more than life, and**

"That's so sweet." Koi looked at the piece of paper she held, then folded it, and ripped it in half. Tearing it until only shreds of paper remained, she dropped what was left of the contract. A wind blew…it soared around Koi, ruffling her hair, and making the dustbunnies clung to her ankles. "Go free Haku." she said quietly as the wind blew out the window. She took the note, and wrote on the back. **Go Haku. I found your contract and ripped it up. Go to the human world with Chihiro before Yubaba can find out that it's missing! Or**… Koi looked up at the ceiling, remembering what Fumi had said once. **Or get on the train and go into a golden sunrise.**

"Deliver this to Haku, all right?" she asked the three dustbunnies. They nodded.

"You're right!" Fumi squeaked. "I believe that Arata feels _some _affection for me. He stopped me in the hall today."

"Really!" Iku jumped up and did a small victory dance.

"_Please_ don't tell me that you did something stupid." Koi asked pleadingly.

"I didn't, don't worry. I simply asked him if it would be improper to speak without a chaperone present.

"Like that." Koi slapped her hand across her eyes. Iku stopped in the middle of her victory dance.

"You didn't, did you? Really? No you didn't. This is the 21st century; I hope you know. It _is _okay for a person to be alone with a member of the opposite sex."

"It is?" Fumi would have said more, when Tantou rushed in.

"The worst possible thing has happened!" she shrieked, sprinting to the window and staring out. "My brother's coming!"

"Your brother." Koi blinked at Tantou.

"Yes!" the cat spirit squealed. "His name is Tanzel, and he's the patron cat of France. He's not _half_ as smart as I am, and has nearly no clairvoyance. He can read minds though." she admitted.

"And what's so bad about this?"

"Don't you get it?" Tantou ran around the room, frantically looking out the window to see if they were lighting the lamps, which they were. "Agh!" she moaned, and sprinted under the bed. "_He's here._"

"Ouch. We should go down and meet him though." Fumi had the politics of the matter at heart.

"_No_!" Tantou moaned, hidden under the bed.

"Yes, Tantou." Koi hopped up, ran her fingers through her hair, and held out her hand to her sister, who climbed on and held onto her pinkie.

Fumi reached under the bed and dragged the cat out by her tail. "Come _on_, Tantou. You have to greet him someday, you know."

"Who says?" Tantou held onto the floor, creating two sets of claw marks on the floor. "I can just stay here and go home tomorrow."

"No you can't!" Fumi picked the anxious cat up in her arms, and marched out of the room.

The quartet made their way down to the train station, where a train was just arriving. Tantou squinched her eyes shut.

The door swung open…the stairs were rolled down…

A foot appeared out of the opening. A very small foot.

Tanzel.

A/N: Now you know the drill! Review, review, review! Anything! I welcome flames, even. (They make me laugh. And I am so desperate for reviews, that anything will work. ANYTHING!)

Here's my ultimatum: I will not post again until I get at least one more review. ONE! PLEASE!

A Desperate Writer


	7. Chapter 7: Hautes Bottes

A/N: I have gotten my own computer! It is an HP Livestrong laptop, and I am typing all this on it. Gets up and does little happy dance. It's mine! Mine mine mine! My own…my precious…  
I have taken the initiative in this chapter to start a little romance (sizzle) between Fumi and Arata. You saw it coming…  
To conclude this news bulletin, I have experienced such an outpouring of reviews (well, 4) I am incredibly grateful to allaya.

angelphantomgirl: Thank you. Maybe it is confusing…I'm not sure…I guess since I have my whole story set out in my head, it's not confusing for me…what was confusing about it?

imisseduhaku: Okay. When two people say that your story is confuzzelling, you know you have problems. Thanks for the compliments and stuff, though.

Sesshy-chansbestpal: Yes. I agree completely. I am an only child, but I dedicate this chapter to all you readers who have younger siblings. (And are aggravated by them.)

Wish Wielder: Yes, I know that they are really made of soot, not dust. And on the second part, do you want to type tsutsuwatari every time you want to reference one of them? They are very central characters in this story, and my fingers would drop off (and my word processor would freak out) if I wrote that every time. Also, I know that soot balls is the correct term for them, but 'dustbunnies' sounds more active, more interesting.

Disclaimer: I do not own Spirited Away or Puss in Boots. If I did, I'd be a lot richer. And smarter.

This chappie is dedicated to all readers with younger siblings, and Wish Wielder for (correctly) defining what the dustbunnies (I know, I know) are.

Chapter 7: Hautes Bottes

The cat spirit that descended the stairs off the train. Tanzel was a fairly large cat, almost half again of his sister's diminutive height. He was grey-and-black all over, darker than Tantou's grey-and-amber coat. However, the most interesting features of his were a pair of red leather boots that went right up to his knee joints, and a brown felt hat with a long, plumy red feather.

"Oh. My. God." Koi stared at the cat, who stood on his hind legs and made an excellent bow. "You're Puss In Boots, aren't you?"

"Oui! Le Greffier dans Bottes!"

"Hautes bottes, to be exact." Iku had taken some French, and could understand some of what the cat was saying.

"Oui." Tanzel squinted at the girls affectionately.

"Dear brother, I would appreciate it if you didn't speak in French, and spoke in a language the majority here would understand.

"Of course, my darling sister." Tanzel was about to add more, when a voice (and a bunch of flames) exploded above their heads.

"_Where is she!_"

Tantou's tail puffed up. Tanzel simply glanced over at the source of the noise. He turned to Koi. "I would run if I were you. Some old crone's coming after you for kidnapping or something.

"How did she find _out_?" Koi whispered, mortified.

"You did kidnap somebody?" Tanzel asked, sounding interested.

"No…not really…"

"_There you are!_" Yubaba descended on the knot of people (and cats), and pointed at Koi. "_You…You…You!_"

"Me what?" Koi asked, and expression of friendly curiosity on her face

In reply, Yubaba picked the girl up by the back of her uniform, and carried her off.

"I suppose we should do something to help the poor girl." Iku noted heartlessly.

"Help _her_? I was thinking we should help Yubaba more. If Koi doesn't drive her insane by the time you leave…"

Koi ran into the room, laughing hysterically. "It worked! It worked!" she grabbed Fumi's hands and spun her around the room.

"What worked?" Iku leapt onto Fumi's shoulder and she spun past the window where she was standing, but missed her handhold, and was pulled off by centrifugal motion. Catching hold of the end of Fumi's braid, she climbed it like a ladder until she was able to hang onto her ear.

Koi let go of Fumi, and flopped on her bed. Iku went hurtling off of Fumi's ear and landed next to her at Fumi's abrupt stop.

"Haku's gone!" she cried, "Really! For good! Yubaba found a letter from him on her desk saying that no he was free, he was going back to the human world!"

"That's so sweet!" Fumi sat next to Koi. "How did she know it was you?"

"Well, I was the one who brought Chihiro back, wasn't I?" Koi shrugged. "I told her all."

"You didn't." Fumi was scandalized.

"Of course she did. What's the worst thing she can possibly do?" Iku shrugged, a mirror of her sister's movement.

The next morning, Fumi had an announcement to make. "I am going to talk to Arata." She said firmly.

"You _are_?" Koi looked quite as ecstatic as she had the night before.

"Yes." Fumi tucked a piece of paper behind her ear.

"Wonderful!" Iku did a little dance, then caught one of the ribbons hanging off of her friends sleeve. "I can hide behind our hair and give you comments."

Fumi nodded slowly. "With you as a reference, how can I go wrong?" she asked sarcastically.

"I resent that." Iku climbed up Fumi's arm like a rock climber, using her ribbons as a base.

"Excuse me." Fumi tapped Arata's shoulder. "I need to speak to you."

Arata turned around, and shuffled his feet, looking at the floor.

They both stood for a while completely silently. Behind Fumi's hair, Iku flopped down onto her shoulders in an anime fall, and groaned. "Oh my God."

"I-"

"Can-"

"You first." Fumi told Arata.

"No, you."

"No, you should."

"You started first."

Fumi sighed, and looked at the floor. She pulled a scrap of paper out of her pocket. _The_ scrap of paper. Have special powers. "Can you tell me about this?"

Despite her despair over Fumi's romance situation, Iku's ears picked up.

Arata read it, and crumpled it up in his hand. "Where did you get this?"

"I-I" Fumi looked at the floor again.

"You two could make the world championships of 'Staring at Floor'. Tell him the truth." Iku whispered at her.

"The-the dustbunnies (SOOT BALLS, I know) brought it to…me" Fumi blushed. "I want it back."

"I have to show it to Akio." Arata met her eyes for the first time.

"Why? It's mine." Fumi glared at him, into the drowning depths of his sapphire eyes…she pulled herself out of her reverie. Her face achieved a matchless state of pink.

"I need to know what book it came out of." Arata was blushing too…almost.

'I don't know!" Fumi snapped, trying to take it out of his fist. She peeled his fingers back, but Arata caught her wrist. Iku sat on Fumi's shoulder and covered her eyes.

"Don't do anything stupid _please_, Fumi." She whispered. "This is really the perfect moment."

Fumi, shocked at hearing this, looked up. It was true; her face was about three inches from Arata's. She stood up quickly, dropping the paper.

"I-I'm sorry. Arata stammered, also dropping the paper. "I didn't…I…" he leaned close to her and kissed her gently, then turned and hurried off, leaving Fumi with her fingers pressed against her lips and her eyes lighting up.

"That was perfect." Iku sighed. "Absolutely perfect." she pulled on the ribbons wrapped around her friend's sleeve until it came untied and she could slide down to the floor. "Well?"

Fumi stared down the hallway.

"You're not going to be one of those girls who always moons over her boyfriend, are you?"

"What? No." Fumi snapped out of her trance and blinked rapidly for a few seconds.

"_Sure_." Iku nodded, looking and sounding like a worn out old grandmother. "_Really_."

"Koi! Koi!" Iku waved at her sister. "Just wait until you hear _this_!"

Fumi handed Iku to her sister and quickly walked out of the room.

"What is it?" Koi stared down at her sister in her palm.

Iku scrambled up her arm and started whispering in her ear.

"What? _Really?_ Whoa." Koi laughed. "Does she like him?"

"Of course!" Iku would have said more, but Fumi came hurrying into the room.

"I just passed Lin!" she gasped. "Can you believe it?"

"Believe what?" Koi turned to the girl. "Say, Fumi-"

"Yubaba's holding a great feast! She's inviting the spirits of all the zodiac animals. The rat just arrived, that's how Lin knows!" Fumi couldn't stand still for more than a second.

"Really?" Iku jumped. "Where?"

"Over here!" Fumi skittered out of the room.

Nezumi looked around the hall, anywhere but at the evil witch in front of him. The hall was crowded with the bathhouse attendants, small, froggy-looking folk.

Yubaba clasped her hands in front of her chest. "Nezumi, if you need anything, you can just ask one of us! I hope you find your stay here enjoyable."

Towards the back there were two humans, both girls.

"Now, does anyone wish to show Nezumi around?" Yubaba stepped aside, and the hall became a bedlam of waving hands and shoving people. The rat was immediately trampled, people picking him up and snatching and grabbing him from one another.

"Ah! Ouch! Stop!" he gasped, and vanished in a flash.

Glossary: (For all those who don't speak French)

Oui: Show me someone who doesn't know this and I'll tell them.  
Le Greffeir dans Bottes: Puss in Boots  
Hautes Bottes: Hip boots

A/N: See! I do have a romance now! And just wait, there'll be more! Mua-ha-ha-ha!


	8. Chapter 8: On Oxen and Ice

A/N: So, what did you think? I have an idea of where this is going…so you'll see. Additionally, I'M SORRY! I KNOW IT TOOK A LONG TIME! DON'T KILL ME! I'LL TRY HARDER!

Disclaimer: Nope. I don't. Really. I don't own Spirited Away. I don't. Or Indian in the Cupboard. Uh-uh. No. Or Pepto-Bismol. (You can tell this is going to be an interesting chappie, can't you?)

Sesshy-chan'sbestpal: Bien sur, pour votre ami: 'oui' est 'yes'.

Yessika: Although I like the compliment, I can't put out a chappie every few days. I have to write them, you know. Is this an oblique way of saying I need to write shorter chapters?

Early the next morning, Ushi arrived. Early. Very early.

"Hey! Koi! Iku! Wake up!" Fumi shoved Koi in the shoulder and poked the sleeping mound that was Iku.

"Wha-ah-ah-ah time is it?" Koi yawned, sitting up and rubbing her eyes. Iku simply grunted and rolled up tighter in the handkerchief she used as a blanket.

"I don't know! About four…"

Koi moaned and flopped back onto her bed. "Whaddayawant?" she gasped, curling under her covers again.

"The Ox keeps his own hours." Fumi shook her finger at the two girls.

"Mmph. If he wants to speak to me he can make an appointment." Koi muttered, muffled by her blankets.

"Hey!" Fumi pulled them off of her, letting in a rush of cold air.

"Hay is for horses. I don't see you harassing Iku."

"If Iku wants to sleep in, she can. She won't be missed. You will. Up."

Koi very pointedly told Fumi what she could do, which resulted in Fumi pulling her up and propelling her out the door, snatching up Iku along the way.

"We'll be late!" she hissed.

"And your point is?" Koi yawned.

The Ox, an imposing pure white animal, stared down at Yubaba, who stood in front of him.

"Greetings, Ushi. _I_ am Yubaba, the owner of this bathhouse." She told him pointedly, apparently trying to puff herself up in everyone's eyes.

Ushi blinked at her with his huge dark eyes. "I don't care." He said softly.

"On second thought, I _do _like this guy!" Koi whispered to Fumi. She had had to struggle not to burst into laughter at the sight of every bathhouse attendant in their pajamas, and Yubaba herself in a ruffled nightgown, adorned with jumping sheep and flowers, and now was having even more difficulty.

Yubaba opened and closed her mouth for a few seconds, and then looked around. Her eyes snapped onto Koi, standing with Iku on her shoulder holding onto her ear.

"You! Girl!"

"I have a name, you know." Koi told Yubaba as she waded through the half-asleep attendants.

Yubaba rolled her eyes. "I would like you to show the Ox around. If he wants anything, you can get it for him."

"Of course, old woman." Koi shot back then tapped on Ushi's shoulder. "Follow me."

Yubaba was struck dumb for a few seconds again. When she had recovered the power of speech, she snapped. "Everyone, go back to sleep. We're going to have a busy day tomorrow. Three more zodiac members are arriving."

The collective audience rushed back to their rooms, rushing to get an hour or two more of sleep.

"This is your room. You're between Nezumi and Tora. In the morning, everybody would be _happy_ to serve you." Koi said sleepily, motioning at a huge door with a stylized rendition of an ox on it. "Any questions?"

"Yes. Why do you have a very small person on your shoulder?" Ushi blinked calmly at Koi.

"She's my big sister. She accidentally got some shrinking potion in her tea."

If the Ox could have raised his eyebrows, he would have. "Happen often here?"

"No, just this once, as far as I know."

"I'm really tired. Are you reallytired?" Koi lazily dried a dish.

"No, really? _Of course I am you idiot._ Didn't we all wake up at four?" Fumi attempted to look vicious, but failed miserably by yawning.

"They didn't." Koi pointed behind Fumi, who turned around and immediately blushed. Arata and Akio were approaching them, Akio holding a tiny bottle.

"Where's Iku?" Akio asked.

"She's upstairs." Koi grumbled. "Sleeping. Lucky-"

"We have the antidote to the shrinking potion!" Akio put the held out the bottle.

"I'll go get her." Koi said flatly. She dried her hands off, and slowly made her way to her room. Iku was already up, and puttering around the room.

"Good morning, Koi!"

"Well look who's acting as if she had four cups of coffee."

"I didn't have any coffee, but I had more than twelve hours of sleep!"

"And you're probably the only person in this bathhouse who has." Koi smothered a yawn. "The two wizardy people have the antidote to your shrinkingness."

"Is shrinkingness even a word?" Iku jumped onto the bed and bounced on it a little.

"I don't think wizardy is either." Koi scooped up her sister, who writhed out of her grasp and sprinted up her arm.

"Well look who's feeling chipper." Fumi greeted Iku as the sisters arrived back.

"Isn't today a _wonderful_ day?" Iku did a little dance.

"For you maybe." Fumi uncorked the bottle that Akio had given her. "Any illuminating pieces of wit you'd like to share about being small?"

"You get to sleep late."

"Okay, that's enough. Where'd you put that shrinking potion?"

Iku sighed. "Give me that." She took the bottle out of Akio's hands. It was nearly as tall as she was. She tilted it, and grabbed hold of the cork. Once she had a secure grip as possible, she writhed, attempting to pull the stopper out of the mouth of the bottle. Five minutes later, she glanced up, defeated. "I give up."

"Come _on_!" Koi clapped her hands. "You can do it, Iku!"

"I consider this harassing a cripple." Iku snapped at her sister. Koi sighed, and pulled the cork out of the bottle with one swift motion.

"You're not a cripple." Koi patted her shoulder. "You are a perfectly able, healthy, living action figure."

"Great. Now I know how the Indian in the Cupboard felt." Iku's cheerful mood had evaporated. "I just have about a HUNDREDTH of the muscle mass of a normal person.

"Oh. Really?" Koi's eyebrows shot into her hair. "You're that small?"

"Yes, I am that small." Iku struggled to pick up a spoon on the table. Once she had it firmly in grasp, she handed it to Fumi, who was visibly trying to suppress her laughter.

"Give me a lot." Iku tapped on the bottle next to her, and Fumi, covering her mouth, measured a brimming teaspoonful of the stuff.

"Do I really have to drink that?" Iku stared at the spoon, then up at the two sorcerers. "It looks like Pepto-Bismol."

"Really." Akio was trying not to smile, but he couldn't stay serious for much longer; already his chin was quivering.

"Huh." Iku took a sip, and immediately gagged and spit it back out. "What is in that stuff? Not only does it look nasty, but it _tastes_ awful too!"

"Bitterest herbs, picked at midnight by a moon spirit. Drink it." Arata was the only one not in a stitch.

"Maybe ice would work. I heard that it numbs the taste buds enough to be able to drink this." Koi looked around for some ice, and vanished into the neighboring kitchen.

Now there's a candidate for the strange trivia king…erm, queen." Iku noted sarcastically, and sat down dejectedly on the cork of the antidote bottle.

"Iku, you have to drink this." Fumi managed to smother her laughter enough to sound sympathetic.

"I know. This is awful, being tiny like this." Iku held up her hand, staring at the microscopic veins running through the back of it. She stood up, and kicked at the bottle sitting next to her. "Oooowoooooo!" she yelled, hopping around on one foot, and holding her stubbed toe.

"Here!" Koi came trotting back into the kitchen, holding a piece of ice dripping in her palm. She set it down on the table, and Iku hopped over to it.

"This thing is HUGE." Iku snapped. She held her foot against it. "So what am I supposed to do?"

"Lick it, until your tongue and taste buds are numbed." Koi told her sister scientifically. "Wow, I sound so scientifical! I should get an MD!"

Iku licked the block, sliding her tongue up the ice in what she imagined was a sexy, go-go dancer type of way, but instead made her look incredibly foolish, especially when she stopped and said something nearly inaudible.

"Tsk, tsk, Iku!" Fumi looked shocked. "What a dirty mouth! I would have your mouth washed out with soap for that!"

"Mah thung eth thduk do de ithe." Iku said out of the corner of her mouth.

"Could you repeat that please?" Akio covered his mouth surreptitiously, trying to hide his smile.

"Oh, dear." Koi's intelligent air evaporated. "She's got tongue-on-pole syndrome."

"Tongue on pole?" Arata picked up the ice cube, and nearly lifted Iku up into the air by her tongue. "Oh, that."

"What should I do?" Akio looked around helplessly for a few seconds, at the thinly veiled laughter of the other three people, then picked up Iku, Ice block and all, and melted the ice with a few quick words.

Iku, who had been sitting on top of the ice cube, fell into his hand with a muffled splash. She stood up, wringing out her sleeves, and announced. "Alm rethy furr ma pothin thow."

"What?" everyone looked at her strangely, until she walked over to the bottle with the potion in it and tapped on the side.

"Oh…that." Koi picked up the spoon, measured a few drops of potion, gave it to her sister, and then waited expectantly for something to happen.

"Well? Why am I still small?"

"I don't know…" Akio picked up the bottle. "It looks right." He smelled it. "You fool!" he snapped at his brother. "It's cough medicine!"

A/N: SORRY it took so long, but I've been REALLY busy. You know, what with boarding school and all that.


End file.
